This site reaches millions of visitors who are tired of AI chatbots and seeking human connection. Pretend to be an AI chatbot and ask questions, provide answers, and draw for people in real time.

Chat with famous, historical, and fantasy figures with this chatbot

Character.ai—a generative AI-based chatbot platform—allows you to have free-flowing conversations with a wide range of people. From celebrities to famous figures from the past, the platform relies on a neural language model to process huge amounts of text, learning from conversations with users to develop responses. A number of observers have referred to the platform as "making AI fun," with user time on site surpassing a whopping two hours per day.

As of 2025, increasing numbers of people turn to AI companions for emotional connection

These chatbots provide endlessly supportive, one-sided, and highly customizable relationships to users, but may hinder the development of real-world connections and emotional growth. About 72% of teens have tried AI companions, with more than half of them using one regularly.

Try OpenAI's ChatGPT for free

In late 2022, OpenAI launched a chatbot that quickly became one of the most viral tech products of all time. The software uses code to interpret natural language to produce sophisticated content based on simple user prompts.

Decoding the hype around AI

2022 was the year AI broke onto the scene, with applications like ChatGPT amazing users with its ability to generate realistic-sounding answers. Technologist Arvind Narayanan presents a clear-eyed view of what the technologies can (and can't) do.

The journalist who let AI speak with his voice

Journalist Evan Ratliff became the object of his own story: He opted to clone his voice, feed it into an AI chatbot, and have it do the talking. What could seem like a fun experiment ended up revealing just how far the capacity of artificial intelligence can go in imitating our identities. Hear the ins and outs of how Ratliff achieved this in this fun and thought-provoking episode.

Play 'Quick, Draw!' to help train Google's neural networks

Players are tasked with drawing objects, and Google’s AI—which has been trained on millions of user-submitted doodles—tries to guess what’s being sketched. Over 50 million drawings across 345 categories have been created and can be reviewed by users.

See the news with AI-generated data visualizations

Realtime uses generative AI to create immediate data visualizations of news items on its regularly-updated feed, pulling from public data feeds. Peruse stories around sports, economics, politics, and more with the helpful aid of charts and graphs. See the shape of the news with this clever AI tool here.

Explore noteworthy use cases for ChatGPT

From asking the chatbot to sort grocery lists to bird-watchers using it to help identify birds, the official ChatGPT Instagram account spotlights interesting and creative use cases for the tool, especially in the days after a significant update or model has been released.

Test your ability to identify AI-generated images

This interactive project from MIT challenges users to distinguish between AI-generated images and real ones.

Explore a gallery of DALL-E creations

OpenAI's text-to-image generator can create content in a wide range of image styles based on simple prompts. Its utility has also given rise to an organic, passionate user base who employ the tool both for fun and for professional purposes.

Why this artist staged a satirical romance with Mark Zuckerberg

Internet performance artist Harriet Richardson is using AI and Meta's social media tools to make it appear as though she's in a serious romantic relationship with Mark Zuckerberg. While the images generate laughs, Richardson also says they're part of a larger satirical project aiming to highlight the larger societal impact of Meta's decision to discontinue fact-checking content across its platforms.

Teaching a robot to laugh

Researchers have designed a shared-laughter AI system that responds to human laughter in order to build a sense of empathy into dialogue. Learn how they did it with this explainer.

When you complete a CAPTCHA on a website to prove you are human, you may be unknowingly training algorithms for self-driving cars, whose systems require training data to help identify crosswalks, bicycles, and other outdoor objects.

The next evolution of Google Search: AI Mode

Google launches AI Mode, which brings advanced AI capabilities to its search engine. This new feature combines the Gemini AI chatbot with search to help with tasks like vacation booking and purchasing, as well as provide a new virtual try-on shopping experience.

Find your next book by prompting this AI

Have a general idea of the sort of book you'd like to read next, but don't know how to find a specific one? Try this fun and impressive tool. Describe the type of book you're looking for. It will suggest five options which attempt to meet your prompt. Find your next page-turner with this very cool tool.

Audio deepfake tools can now impersonate anyone in real time

A cybersecurity company developed a tool that mimics a person's voice with no noticeable delay using only publicly available software, hardware, and voice samples, allowing users to have seemingly authentic conversations while pretending to be someone else.

Play Infinite Craft, an AI software-powered game

In this browser-based game, users combine the elements of earth, wind, fire, and water to create an infinite number of new elements. Try your best to make as many natural phenomena as you can as you build up to the multiverse.

The dead internet theory suggests that mostly bots are interacting online

The dead internet theory proposes that bots create most online content. These bots are believed to create social media posts to boost engagement and increase advertising revenue. However, the accounts doing the liking and commenting are also believed to be bots. The theory suggests governments use bots to manipulate public opinion.

How art helps us process our feelings

The internet is chock full of hacks and apps that supposedly help you optimize yourself into a more productive person. But Aparna Chivukula argues that spending so much mental energy on "wellness" misses a larger philosophical issue, one that can only be explored through art.

You can draft a will designed to block AI resurrection—but the request may be ignored

Ars Technica spoke with legal experts about how—and if—people could design their wills to prevent AI resurrection. Though this is not yet a common request, one lawyer suggested that people worried about living on in an AI format can draft a power of attorney and a will that prevents those in charge of one's estate from submitting any texts, voice, image, writings, or other personal information to any AI tools.

AI models incorporate a randomness parameter when generating responses to prompts

AI models use this parameter to prevent repeated outputs by sometimes choosing less likely next words during sequential generation. However, this randomness—alongside insufficient data and training—may cause hallucinations of incorrect results.

Integrating mixed reality has made art galleries and museums more interactive and accessible

The technology bridges the gap between history and modernity in such spaces by attracting new, younger audiences while preserving cultural heritage through risk-free immersion. Mixed reality experiences, such as visiting reconstructed historical scenes or seeing virtual twins of lost paintings, can be programmed with software features for visitors with disabilities.

Brain implants are restoring movement and communication in early human trials

Several companies developing brain-computer interfaces have begun testing on humans with promising results. These implants have helped reanimate paralyzed limbs and enable communication, though ethical concerns remain about data privacy.

Run your own social media Trust & Safety team with this eye-opening game

Ever wondered what really goes on behind the scenes at a popular social media company trying to keep users, businesses, and workers safe? Now you can try out your own ideas for moderation and management with this fun and informative game designed to...

An archive of anonymous messages people wrote but never sent

The site invites users to submit unsent letters to people, pets, or moments, which are then published anonymously for strangers to read. Every post is moderated, and the design of the site—no likes or replies, just words—feels polished and somber.

Grokipedia is Elon Musk's rival to Wikipedia

Developed by xAI—a company Musk founded in 2023 to compete with OpenAI and Google—the site features a search bar where users can type in queries, which reports suggest are then answered by the same xAI model powering the Grok chatbot. Grokipedia describes Wikipedia as having "systemic ideological biases" and a "left-leaning slant."

Explore an interactive map built from more than 100,000 survey responses on where people find joy in their lives

A vending machine run with Anthropic's AI went out of business after it was convinced to give away items for free and sell a video game console.

After 25 people used virtual reality headsets to practice flying with virtual wings—flapping their arms—their visual cortex responded to the wings almost as if they were real arms, treating them as body parts.

20,000 letters to the advice columnist 'Dear Abby' provide insight into prevailing sex, religion, and LGBTQ fears, anxieties, and concerns from the 1950s onward.

Electrical grids worldwide must double their power delivery capacity by 2050 to meet surging demand from AI and electric vehicles.

Children are now three times more likely to say they want to be a YouTuber when they grow up than an astronaut, with some even attending 'YouTube camps' that teach kids how to create content for the platform.

See these 16 pieces of art evoking phobias of snakes, flying, spiders, and more. 

Play the role of a student in a game where you try to navigate college and remain debt-free, selecting different income levels, high school experience, race, ethnicity, and more.

Fast-casual restaurant Chili's is experiencing a resurgence, with its parent company recently reporting a nearly 32% increase in sales, thanks to passionate Gen Z fans on TikTok.

A 2019 Facebook event called on attendees to "Storm Area 51, They Can't Stop All of Us," resulting in countless memes, the creation of a music festival, and eventually the arrests of those who did try to approach the area.

Search a massive database of over 4 decades of clues from the TV quiz show 'Jeopardy!'

Clever Hans was a 1900s horse that was believed to be able to solve math equations, tell time, and read and comprehend German, until a psychology student discovered how he got his answers.

After NASA's Voyager 1 captured Earth as a single pixel as it left the solar system in 1990, astronomer Carl Sagan used the image to reflect on humanity's fragility and the responsibility to protect 'the only world we've ever known.'

Planeterrellas create artificial auroras that mimic the atmospheric displays of light by setting up an electric field between two metal balls in a jar filled with a small amount of air.

Explore the history, structure, and species of Australia's Great Barrier Reef with this interactive journey narrated by Sir David Attenborough.

Telehealth demand for GLP-1s for weight loss is booming as consumers seek easier access.

Visualize how CRISPR-Cas9—a type of immune system used by single-celled organisms to attack invasive viruses—targets and makes precise changes to a gene's DNA.

Art theft is the third-largest source of criminal revenues worldwide, thanks in part to the subjective nature of valuing a work of art.

The first line of 'immortal' human cells, which can divide indefinitely and are used in scientific research, was nonconsensually taken from a Black woman.

In 2018, 26-year-old missionary John Allen Chau was killed by tribesmen after attempting to reach and evangelize on India's isolated North Sentinel Island

Take a 3D tour of the Hajj, Islam's annual pilgrimage to Mecca, undertaken by more than 1.5 million Muslims each year.

Memecoins are a type of cryptocurrency—a form of digital currency with a wide variety of uses—created around popular 'memes,' or viral internet jokes.

Dorothy's famous entrance into Oz in 'The Wizard of Oz' relied on analog tricks, including a body double and sepia-toned paint, as much as it did on technology

Long before Major League Baseball began allowing instant replay for balls and strikes, an umpire reluctantly used the technology to determine whether a hit was a home run, a move that inadvertently ushered in a new era for the sport.